Rilee and the Underland
by Whovian33
Summary: Rilee just moved to New York City. Some of you may be thinking, "Well, good for her!" Actually, it isn't. She is a country girl through and through. She misses the grass and the animals and the way everyone in her hometown knew each other. They were all family. So this is the story of how Rilee came to create a new family. A family more unique than any other.
1. Chapter 1

Summary:

Rilee just moved to New York City. Some of you may be thinking, "Well, good for her!" Actually, it isn't. She is a country girl through and through. She misses the grass and the animals and the way everyone in her hometown knew each other. They were all family. So this is the story of how Rilee came to create a new family. A family more unique than any other.

The beginning:

Rilee pounded her way up the stairs of her new apartment building. _Stupid elevator! _She thought. _The dang thing is always broken. _She wasn't really paying attention to where she was going, so it was a big shock when she collided with the boy. _Man is more like it… _He was tall and toned. "I am so, so sorry!" She almost yelled. She didn't really know what she was apologizing for; she was the one on the ground.

He laughed. "No problem!" Reaching his hand out to me, he said, "I'm Gregor." I took his hand. "Rilee."

"Nice to meet you Rilee! You new here?"

"Oh, yeah!" She said with her southern twang. "Most definitely! This is my first time in the 'Big City'." She made air quotes with her fingers.

"Well, this isn't the best building, but there are some good people here." Gregor said. "We're glad to have you."

"You're about the only ones then!" She laughed. "Good bye, Gregor." She took off back up the stairs, as he called, "See ya later!"

When she finally made it up to her apartment, she yelled out, "I'm home!"

"Wilee! Wilee!" , Screeched Asa. She crossed the room to her baby brother at the kitchen table. "Hey, Bud! Where's Seth?" She inquired. "Bafwoom.", Came Asa's reply.

Shifting her baby brother to her hip, she walked down the hall and banged on the bathroom door. "Come on! It's laundry time!"

"Shut up, Twin!" Seth yelled through the door.

Rilee and Seth were both freshmen in high school this coming school year. Super squeaky fun time!

"Hurry up! We gotta get down there and get it done before Mom and Dad come back!"

"I'm comin'!" He muttered. "Hold your horses!"

Rilee laughed. "Ain't got none! We're in the city now!"

That was when he chose to open the door. His eyes were red and puffy. "Aww, Seth! Not again!"

"I can't help it! I miss her so much!" You might think that he was talking about some pretty little girl he left back home, but he wasn't. Seth 'doesn't play for that team' as they say. He's about as queer as a three dollar bill. The 'her' he was referring to was our beautiful horse, Molly. They had to leave her behind in Townville.

Rilee just shook her head. "Let's go get this laundry done." She led the way, a basket on one hip and a baby on the other, down the stairs to the laundry room.

On their way down, they encountered a strange old lady. "Are you going to the laundry room?" The lady blurted.

"Yes, ma'am," I replied. "Why? Is there something wrong with it?"

She gazed at us in fear and hobbled off. _Well that was odd… _Seth and I exchanged glances.

We continued down and loaded all of our clothes into washers. That's when we noticed it. A rusty grate, screwed shut.

They didn't know it at the time, but that little grate would change their lives forever.


	2. Chapter 2

"Hey, Seth! Get a screw driver!" Rilee called. "I think I saw a toolbox over there." She gestured to the other side of the room.

"Sure thing!" he called. "Catch!" He tossed it to her and she began working on the rusty screws.

Soon the grate was open and the trio was peering into a gray-ish white mist. Rilee, of course, leaned forward. She stuck her head and shoulders through and tried to reach for the bottom.

"STOP!" Gregor called. "Don't do that!" Rilee twisted and lost her balance, tumbling into the grate. She hung upside down, her brothers and Gregor holding her feet. They were all pulled in with her and the journey down began.

"Asa! Seth!" Rilee called. "Where are you!?"

Suddenly she wasn't alone. Gregor was there. "Hold my hand!" She latched on instantly. Soon they bumped into Asa and held to Rilee's torso like a vice. Then they found Seth. Once they were all together, Rilee calmed down.

"I need you all to scream as loud as you can!" Gregor yelled over the wind. "There should be a guard around here!"

"You're crazy!" Seth yelled back.

"I know." Gregor replied. "Too bad I'm all you've got. Now SCREAM!" So we all screamed bloody murder. We continued to for several minutes. It felt like days.

"What is this?" The words were tore out Rilee's mouth. "Trust me. You don't wanna know!" Gregor shouted.

And then… They were flying! A fuzzy wall of warmth moved below her and she felt a hand on her arm.

"Are you well?" said a strange voice. Asa was crying and Seth was screaming somewhere to my left. I looked up but it was dark now that we were out of the mist. "Wha-" then it was all dark.

Rilee felt the warmth of a blanket covering her. She opened her eyes to see a grand room made of stone. Her throat felt like sand paper but she managed to call out, "Where are my brothers?"

The door opened and in walked Gregor. "Who are you?" Rilee inquired. "What is this place?"

Gregor put his hands up to stop her questions. "It's better if you wait for the queen. She is better at explaining it than me."

"Who's better at explaining what?" Seth asked, stumbling into the room with Asa on his hip.

"Wilee!" Asa called. He slipped out of Seth's arms and waddled over to me. Seth followed him quickly.

"Queen Luxa. She's better with words than I." Gregor repeated. "I hope she's still alive!" He muttered.

"What do you mean 'still alive'? How old is she?" Seth wondered. "About sixteen, I think…" Gregor trailed off, trying to do the math in his head. "Yeah," he concluded. "Sixteen."

Boom! Somebody busted through the door. She was the strangest thing any of the kids had ever seen. So pale she was translucent, you could see every vein in her body. The strangest of her features were her eyes. They were bright violet, and, at the moment, filled with tears. "Gregor!" she choked and ran into his arms.

_Well. He's taken… Dang._ Rilee watched as the strange girl wrapped her arms around Gregor's neck and pulled his face down to her's for a kiss. "I thought I'd never see you again!" He laughed. "You can't get rid of the warrior THAT easily!" He said as if it was a private joke. He turned her attention to us and fell to her knee's. "Three!" Gregor kneeled beside her. "What do you mean three?" She turned to him with a frown on her face. "Why does it always have to be you!" She accused. Understanding lightened his dark eyes. "Oh, not again! Please tell me there isn't –" "A prophecy." She finished. They both turned to the Smith family with a look that made it seem like they were choosing which flowers to place on their graves.

_Uh oh…_


	3. Chapter 3

Gregor:

Perfect. That was the word to describe how Gregor felt in this moment. Maybe that was strange considering that he was probably walking directly into one of Sandwich's 'life-changing' prophecies. The same prophecies that had led to the death of _so _many people he cared for. Okay, maybe they weren't all people. There was Hamnet; Luxa's long lost uncle, who died in the battle against the cutters. Then there was Frill, the giant lizard, who died with Hamnet. Cartesian, the mouse, died in the war against the rats while trying to defend the nursery. Twitchtip was captured by the rats in the Labyrinth and died several years later. And then there was Ares, Gregor's best friend and bond. He was killed by the Bane, a giant white rat that Gregor was destined to kill in the Prophecy of Bane. That bat had saved Gregor's life several times over, just as Gregor did for him.

But there were people who survived this war. Howard and his new bat bond Nike. And Mareth, a human soldier that lost his leg in the battle of the Labyrinth. Lapblood, one of the greatest rats Gregor ever knew, and her two children, Flyfur and Sixclaw. Then there was Gregor's mother, who got infected with the plague on her very first trip down. Ripred the rager, who always seemed to know how to help Gregor and who had developed an extraordinary relationship with Gregor's younger sister Lizzie. Hazard, the son of Hamnet and an Overlander woman, cousin of Luxa. Luxa. She was the queen of this place. Gregor's queen.

As soon as he thought it, he knew it was true. He could never live in the Overland and be himself. Down here, his scars were normal. Everyone knew who he was and what he had sacrificed.

Gregor's mind processed all of this in the time it took to walk down the hall. You think hall and you see plush carpet or hardwood paneling, maybe some wooden walls. You're wrong. Gregor see halls and thinks about stone walls, ceilings, floors and even doors. Everything was made of rock. But most of it was carved into beautiful pictures of the animals that live down here.

Gregor was pulled out of thought by a shout. "Overlander! It be you, it be?" Gregor turned to see a three foot long roach scuttling towards him and smiled. "Temp!" The only way he could tell Temp apart from the other bugs was his bent antennae. He ran across to the beetle and slid on his knees in front of it to give him a hug. "How have you been, man?"

"Good, I be, good," Temp replied.

This was the roach that Gregor's little sister Boots absolutely adored. Actually, boot's adored everyone down there, but Temp was one of her favorites. Speaking of…

"How is the princess?" Temp asked worriedly.

"She is fine Temp. Just fine," Gregor responded.

Temp nodded. "Who be they, who be?" Temp asked, finally noticing the trio of Overlanders behind me.

Gregor stood and turned to the family. "This is Rilee, Seth, and Asa," Gregor stated pointing to each in turn.

"Ahhh. I be Temp, I be," Said the roach, introducing himself.

"Can I just say, I should probably be scared right now, but I'm not?" Rilee voiced. "I mean, this is insane."

Seth just nodded, but Asa warmed up to temp quickly enough." I Asa!"

"Good to meet you, it is, good to meet you," Temp said to the child bowing. Then he turned to Gregor.

"Bring you, _prince,_ bring you?" Temp asked, shocked.

Gregor just laughed. "Sure temp. This is Prince Asa."

"Prince?" Seth asked. "Our Asa?"

"It's just what the roaches call people who still use diapers. Because they smell," Gregor explained. "That's why he refers to Boots as the princess. Last time we were down here she was still in diapers."

That was when Luxa spoke. "I hate to interrupt such a touching reunion, but we have a prophecy to study! Let us take our leave!" She walked off down the hall.

"Ride me, Prince, ride me?" Tem p asked Asa.

"Ye-es!" Asa giggled as he climbed onto Temp's shell.

"Let's go guys. Before Luxa has us thrown in the dungeon!" Gregor added.

He set a fast paced jog, but Rilee and Seth easily kept up. He noticed and started to run a bit faster. They also made adjustments and kept right beside him. He smiled.

They wove their way through the castle behind Luxa. She ran, with her silver hair flowing behind her, all the way to the prophecy room. Gregor stopped the group outside of the wooden door that marked that this was an important room.

"You guys need to understand something," Gregor stated. "You do NOT have to do anything this prophecy says. We can turn around and take you home right after you read it. Also remember that they can be very confusing. The last one said that I died, but I'm still here and they consider the prophecy completed because of something I said about me killing the warrior inside of me."

Rilee and Seth stared at him with wide-eyed gazes.

"Sandwich is a jerk. He wrote these things to get the people down here to fight amongst themselves," he continued. "He killed a lot of my friends with these prophecies. But know that if you do choose to stay, I will stay and fight with you. That means a lot down here, having the Warrior on side."

They nodded and turned to Luxa. She looked at them for a moment, then turned and opened the door.


End file.
